1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a robot control device which has the function of being able to compare setting data of the robot control device with setting data of another robot control device or past setting data of the robot control device, display the points of difference on a screen of the robot control device in a form enabling comparison, and reflect the points of difference in the setting data of the robot control device which is performing a setting operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
When setting a robot control device, sometimes the device is set with reference to setting data of another control device which has already finished being set. The reason is that in the case of robot control devices, often the setting data is the same in many setting items. In this case, the setting data is sometimes copied between the robot control devices. This copying work is performed by manual input while viewing paper on which the setting data is printed or the teaching device of the other robot.
As an example of referring to data between control devices, there is a cell controller which controls a plurality of processing cells which including pallets which supply workpieces to numerical control machine tools. A cell controller where screens of a plurality of numerical control devices are displayed at screens at the cell controller and the data is reflected between numerical control devices is described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 5-346811A. Similarly, it is possible to display the screens of a plurality of control devices on a single display device and set them while comparing the screens. Further, it is possible to store data of a certain control device as a file and read it into another control device for setting the device.
However, when copying setting data of a robot control device by manual input, if the number of setting items is large, tremendous work becomes necessary. On the other hand, it is simple operation-wise to load a setting file, but sometimes data which should not be copied from another control device also ends up being loaded together. In such a case, resetting becomes necessary and time is wasted. Furthermore, in many cases the need for resetting is not noticed or the resetting becomes extremely difficult. The process is therefore not efficient.
Further, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 5-346811A, with the method of displaying the screens of a plurality of control devices on a single screen, it only becomes possible to edit the content displayed on the screen, so the operator has to compare data to find points of difference and move setting data. There is therefore the problem that the efficiency is not good.